Mertypemaids
by Eris Goddess of Discord
Summary: Tara makes a new and most unusual friend.


**DISCLAIMER: **No infringement of copyright is intended. You know the drill, anyone appearing on or mentioned on BtVS are ME's. All cartoon fish belong to the cartoon mouse.

**RATING:** K

**PAIRING:** Tara and Dory

**SUMMARY: **Tara makes a new and most unusual friend.

**WARNINGS and or SPOILERS: **Fluff, schmoop, sap, cartoon fish, general wackiness.

* * *

**Mer-typemaids**

_by Eris © 2005 — All rights reserved._

Tara sat, face clenched tight, her knees tucked neatly beneath her chin. Cautiously she opened one eye and peeped about. She wasn't in her room anymore. The spell had worked, at least the teleportation part. Unfortunately, wherever she was, this place certainly wasn't the kitchen. Where was she? She opened the other eye and attempted to get her bearings. She couldn't be. No. No way! A broad smile slowly found its way across her face.

Releasing her knees, she moved her hands about in front of her completely entranced, and began to emit a childlike giggle. Suddenly a look of terror darkened her pretty features as a ghastly thought struck her. She stopped with a gasp, abruptly clamping her hands over her nose and mouth. Then slowly, deliberately, after much debate and some serious need, she inched her hands away shallowly inhaling, and waited. Unbelievably she repeated the action once more. All at once, she removed her hands, laughed aloud and beamed hysterically at the discovery she could breathe without problem.

As Tara was engrossed in inspecting her neck and sides, she almost didn't hear the small voice calling out to her.

"Hey, how'd you do that? You weren't there and then you were. That's really neat. Do it again. Can you do it again?"

Startled, she turned to find a little blue fish with big violet, googly eyes, swimming even with her head.

"Hi there," it said.

"H-Hello," she stammered automatically, unsure if she had even heard what she thought she just heard. Then again, where she was, at the bottom of the ocean, was already pretty freaking fantastical, so why not.

Cheerily it spoke again. "My name is Dory,"

Tara was completely astounded to be understanding fish. Hoping she could also speak fish, and speak it properly, so that this fish she couldn't believe she was actually talking to could understand her, she replied, "I'm Tara."

Dory speedily swam about her head a few times, inquisitively looking her over, "Gee, Tara, you're quite a big fish. What species are you?"

Tara snorted at its question. It understood her all right. Elated she continued, "Me? I'm not a fish."

Just as Tara finished her sentence, Dory swam right up in her face, accusatorily flapping her yellow-tipped fins at her, "Hey wait a minute, you're not a fish at all, you're a people."

"Yes, that I am." Tara nodded, eyes wide and nearly crossed.

"Wow, a people down here!" Dory backed up excitedly, then quirked a fishy brow as much as a fish possibly could, "Wait a minute. How come you don't have all that scary black latex and breathey diver stuff on?" Then scratched her chin with her fin thinking very hard, "And oh, um, what's that word I'm looking for? Darn. Oh wait, wait!" her face brightened as it came to her, "That's it. I got it. EEEEEKKKK!" She screamed at the top of her gills all wide-eyed, and fled as fast as she could swim to hide behind the nearby coral reef.

Her reaction totally baffled Tara, who annoyedly pulled her continually floaty skirt down, and crossed her legs tucking it underneath her to keep it in place, "Dory! Dory! Don't be frightened," she called out. "Please come out. I won't hurt you. Dory?"

All of a sudden, two big, kind eyes popped out from behind the reef. "Who's that?" Then Dory shot up and hovered just above the little bits of wafting plant growth and sea anemone that grew from the reef. "Did you just call my name?" She swam back over and floated even with her head again, "Hi, I'm Dory."

Tara quirked an eyebrow, confusion at the strange little fish's antics growing, "I'm Tara," she replied trying to get a handle on her flyaway hair now.

"Hello, Tara. Have we met before?"

"Yeesss, we have," she returned, furrowing her brow not understanding.

"Oh really? When?" Dory smiled completely intrigued wanting to hear the details.

"Just now..." Tara supplied patiently trying to jog her memory and searching for some kind of hair band in her pockets.

Dory chewed her lip and rolled her big eyes thinking hard.

"Right here," Tara gestured.

Dory rolled her eyes again racking her little fish brain, "Um, nope. Sorry. Don't remember."

Tara frowned at her, "You're not a well fish are you?"

Dory's face fell, "Is it that noticeable?" She swam in close, "See, I've got this short term memory thing."

"Oh, I'm sorry. How awful."

"What's awful?" Dory asked blinking innocently at her as she retook her earlier position.

"The short term memory loss thing," Tara echoed.

Dory's mouth hung open, "Do you suffer from that too?"

Tara couldn't help but giggle at the adorably forgetful fish. "No, I don't."

"Oh," her face fell. "You sure? Cause, y'know ... you forget."

"I'm quite sure."

"Okay then." Dory frowned for a bit, staring intently at Tara as she finally corralled her hair into a ponytail. Slowly her entire body tilted sideways brightening. "Gosh you're pretty. Are you one of those mermaids?" she asked changing the subject.

Tara smiled and began to blush.

"Ooo got some octopoid in you there. I only ask as I've seen them flitting about with their long tails and hair, all shimmery shiny and gold like yours. Playing and swimming about with their long..." as she spoke she swam down onto Tara's lap, "Oh no, oh dear. That's not right. Interesting scale pattern though, but that is one, two, and no tail. Where's your tail?"

"Dory. I'm not a mermaid," Tara finally replied.

"What about a siren? Do you sing? Hey, we could sing a duet," and she proceeded to emit some horribly off key long screechy notes.

Tara cringed, clutched at her ears and hollered, "DORYYYYY!"

Still the blue fish continued to croon, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Uh, something, something, tomoRROOOOOW!"

"DorYYYYYY!" Tara yelled over her noiseage, a tiny grain of anger tinting her tone. "I'm not a siren either."

This finally got her attention, "Oh, that's too bad. We can still sing though." Unfortunately, this set her to babble, "Because I know all the verses to What Do You Do with a Drunken Sea Horse..."

Thankfully, Tara had extensive experience with babblers.

"...And Blow the Manta Down. I got a real gift for those sea chanteys. Let's see, Under the Seashell, Beyond the Land—"

"Dory, I'm not a siren," she interrupted, "and I don't want to sing. Now focus."

"Okay, okay. Yes, yes. Focusing. Not a siren." She opened her eyes extra wide at Tara waiting for her to continue.

However, Tara wasn't prepared to continue, "Um, yeah. All right." She was simply impatient with the little fish's distracting condition. While she was trying to think up what to say next, Dory spoke up once more.

"Tara, how come you're here? I mean at the bottom of the sea. Because, if you're not a mer-creature or a-a—" she suddenly swam up close to Tara's eye and continued in accusatory tones, "say you're not one of those divers are you?"

Tara quickly shook her head fearing a repeat performance of earlier.

Dory backed up a bit. "Then this isn't exactly where you belong, is it?"

"No, it isn't," she confided. "I really should be home—"

"Oooo, home!" Dory shouted excitedly and swam about herky-jerky, "Tara do you want to see my rock?"

"Y-your what?"

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, "Actually it's more like just a patch of sand that's next to a rock with a piece of fan coral, but it's fairly close to my friend's anemone, like just an easy fin flap."

"Dory!" Tara called out again.

"Sorry. Focusing, focusing."

Taking in a deep breath Tara began, "It all began in my room—"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh." Dory followed intrigued, hanging on every word.

"—my friends and I, we were watching videos—"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh. Whatever that is."

"—when we ran out of munchies."

"Oh dear," Dory clucked, "No munchies, that's never good. Can't have that."

"So we cast a spell—"

"A spell, WOW, oh wow! You can do that? What is that?"

"—and I was supposed to be teleported to the kitchen to get some more Goldfish snack crackers and ginger ale."

"I gotcha," Dory pursed her lips again and gestured with her fins, "but you somehow you got sent here instead."

Tara nodded sheepishly.

"I understand completely." She smiled smugly, then got quiet. Moments passed as she looked about contemplating, until finally her gaze returned to Tara inquisitively, "Tara, how come you got sent _here_?"

Tara screwed up her face slightly impatient, "I just told you, Dory. Did you forget already?"

"No, no. I remember kitchen, goldfish, teleported, ginger ale, whatever that is. I was just wondering why you were sent to the ocean."

Tara quirked an eyebrow and played at her lip, then her face lit up, "It must have been to bring back the goldfish."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Dory acknowledged, a nervous look passing across her face, its blue color deepening.

Tara noted her new uncomfortableness, "Dory? Is something wrong?"

The little fish screwed up her face then looked from side to side moving in so only Tara could hear, "You do know goldfish are freshwater fish, right."

Tara just blinked, "Freshwater?—" she echoed.

"Absolutely," Dory nodded her whole body vigorously. "Hey, if there is anything I know about it would be fish, right."

"I-I-I. Well—I don't know. I guess—"

Dory interrupted continuing to nod more slowly. "So, if you were sent to find goldfish shouldn't you have been dumped in a pond or tossed into a lake?"

Tara sat speechless, an embarrassed expression plastered across her face over the glaring mistake.

After another long pause, she swam up even with Tara's eye level again, "So how long are you here for?"

Tara raised her brow then rolled her eyes and scratched her head. That was a good question. Surely by now Willow and Dawn had noticed she hadn't come back from the kitchen, and if they had gone down to the kitchen to make sure the spell worked and found it empty, Willow would surely have freaked and hurriedly be doing every spell in her power to find her, get her back.

"Cause I was hoping we could be friends. Y'know, buds, gal pals, and we could hang out at my rock. Do girlfish things. Well, I'll do girlfish things. You can do girl whatever-it-is-you-are things and we'll have fun."

Tara stifled another giggle, "I'd like that very much but I'm not really sure how long I'll be here for." Tara looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her fingernail adjusting her skirt, "Why at any moment I could just disappear again forever."

Dory's eyes suddenly went five times their size and glassy as her lower lip began to quiver. Tara was sure if they weren't underwater huge tears would be beginning to roll down the little fish's face.

"Wah-hahahahah!" she wailed like an air raid siren.

The awful sound made Tara jump and her flesh crawl and she panicked, "Shhh. You know what? Forget I just said that. Okay? Dory, please, shhhh. It's okay!" she waved her hands about trying to calm the little fish to no avail. "Quiet down. Shhhhh!"

However, Dory continued to make a huge scene wailing, hollering, and flitting up and down distressed. Tara was terrified some other sea creatures would hear and they might not be as nice as this crazy little one had been. Without thinking, she snatched her around the belly holding a fingertip gently over her mouth.

"Dory stop. Quiet. I don't want to hurt you but you have to calm down." She held the fish until she stopped struggling. "If I take my hand away will you stop crying?"

"Mmm-humph," she replied innocence reflected in her glassy eyes.

"Okay then, I'm going to trust you," and slowly Tara removed her hand from the blue fish's tiny mouth.

"My you have soft flippers," she said now sporting her original perky expression.

This was the last thing Tara expected as she resumed swimming just above her palm. The poor little thing must have become so stressed she'd forgotten what just happened already.

"Do you think you could scratch my back right here below my dorsal fin?" she motioned which ended up more like her simply swimming in a circle mumbling.

Tara reached up and gently obliged.

"Oh yeah. That's it. Loving that." Dory wriggled about and swam through her fingers getting much more than just her back scratched. "Ooooo, yeah, right there, and there, and there. Scalegasm. No, not really. Just a little ichthyoid humor. Heh heh heh. Thank you," she said settling back up by Tara's head.

"Any time," she replied with a grin.

Dory's eyes went happywide this time, "Oooo, any time? Really?"

Tara smirked and nodded, "Sure."

She returned the smile, "Gee, I'm sure glad I met you."

"Me too."

"You are my best friend," she blinked, "well, next to what's-his-name, and we'll be friends always. I just know it."

At her kind words Tara _so_ wanted to reach out and give the fish a big reassuring hug but wasn't sure if fish etiquette allowed.

"Wanna come back to my rock?" Dory asked again enthusiastically.

Tara laughed and was about to answer when she felt a certain tingle in the pit of her stomach. "Oh no!"

Dory's face dropped confused, "No?"

"No. I mean yes."

"No means yes?"

"No, Dory, I'm going home. Right now. I can feel it." Tara announced frantic.

"Home?" Dory furrowed her brow with puzzlement, "Doesn't that usually involve some kind of movement on your part?" Then flapped her body from side to side to simulate swimming.

Tara returned a soft smile and felt her eyes welling up, "Oh Dory. You are the sweetest funniest fish I have ever known and I hate to leave you but I have to say good-bye now. Good-bye Dory. I'll always remember you."

"Good-bye? But-but—" she stammered her lip beginning to quiver again as Tara gradually disappeared before her eyes.

"Dory! Dory! Hey Dory, what's wrong! What are you doing out here?" a voice carried through the water heading her way and fast. She turned to see who it was but they were still too far away.

"I'm talking to Tara," she called anyway and looked back but Tara was gone. "Tara?" She blinked a few times and scanned the waters ahead of her.

"Dory?" came from right behind her now but she just floated motionless staring out into the depths. "Dory," the voice repeated and this time she turned.

"Marlin? Hey, Marlin!" she beamed, "What are you doing out here?"

Meanwhile back at the Summers' house up in Willow and Tara's bedroom.

"Tara! Ohmygodohmygod, I thought we lost you," Willow shouted as she threw her arms around her and gave her the biggest squishy hug yet. All at once, she stopped and released her, "You're all wet!"


End file.
